Murderous History

In late 1940, Hitler's Luftwaffe began its blitz on London, obliterating buildings and terrifying residents. But there was another sinister menace threatening the city: people who exploited this turbulent moment in history to get away with murder. Follow pathologists and detectives as they try to determine if a body found in a bombed chapel was the victim of the Nazis or a local killer. We reveal how this team, without the benefit of modern forensics, was able to crack the case using new techniques and old-school investigative methods.

In 1893, Chicago hosted the World's Fair and burst onto the world's stage. But there was a darker side to the fair. Thousands of young women were disappearing, several of them last seen with a mysterious individual named H. H. Holmes. He's known in the city as a crook and a swindler, but could he be more? Detectives believe so, but without the aid of blood sampling, fingerprinting or DNA profiling, it will take old school investigative tactics and dogged determination to prove Holmes is indeed the "White City Devil."

Edinburgh in the 1820s is the center of the Scottish Enlightenment and home to pioneering medical research. But it was also a city plagued by crime and one of its most infamous involved the owner of a lodging house named William Burke and the city's most prominent surgeon, Dr. Robert Knox. Join us on a "you-are-there" look at a cold-blooded horror story that shocked Edinburgh to its very core. Then, see how the city's newly formed police force made use of all the primitive forensics they had at their disposal to finally crack the case.

In the middle of World War II, Berlin is hit by a series of murders and violent attacks against women that threatens to shatter Hitler's image of a perfect society. One of Germany's top investigators, Wilhelm Lüdtke, is on the case but he faces many obstacles...some coming from his own government. See how a unique combination of Nazi racial ideology, censorship, and blackouts during wartime enabled a ruthless killer to run wild over eight months. Then see how Lüdtke utilized early forensic techniques to finally bring the criminal to justice.

March 30, 1896. A bargeman heading for Reading on the River Thames spots a small package floating on the water. What he discovers inside will shock Victorian Britain and trigger a landmark investigation that will change the way the nation treats its most vulnerable. Witness the case of "baby farmer" Amelia Dyer, arguably Britain's most prolific serial killer, and see how Constable James Anderson, without the aid of modern forensics, was able to blow the case wide open using old school investigative techniques and a few crafty methods.

July 23rd, 1977. Claudia Rodrigues, the well-off sister of a popular actress, attends a party in a trendy neighborhood in Rio de Janeiro. What happens next will spark a national scandal and become Brazil's crime of the century. Witness this high-profile case as it unfolds, featuring the playboy son of a watch company tycoon, the Jogo do Bicho mafia, lots of cocaine, and a successful local detective known as the "Brazilian Barretta," who must battle Rio's powerful and corrupt forces in order to bring Claudia's killers to justice.